Gateway to Himalayan Art

and The Tibetan Shrine Room

July 23, 2010 - January 6, 2014

Marking the first in a series of yearly rotations, nearly twenty works of art add new dimensions and context to Gateway to Himalayan Art. Visitors will notice a greater emphasis on Hindu works, with beautiful examples from India and Nepal ranging from 12th to 19th centuries, as well as intricately-detailed thangka paintings, manuscript pages, and textiles.

In every iteration, Gateway acquaints new and long-time friends of the museum with the principal concepts of Himalayan art, including important deities and symbols, the materials and techniques used in creating works of art, and the purposes and functions of these works in their sacred and secular contexts.

And don't forget to pick up your Gateway Looking Guide to help you identify important figures and symbols throughout the museum. It's yours to keep.

Curated by Karl Debreczeny and Elena Pakhoutova

Gateway to Himalayan Art is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

To learn even more about Gateway to Himalayan Art, read the press release.

 

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The Tibetan Shrine Room from the Alice S. Kandell Collection

 

A spectacular shrine room on loan from the Alice S. Kandell Collection and organized by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution provides Gateway to Himalayan Art visitors an extraordinary opportunity to experience Tibetan Buddhist art in context. Containing approximately 170 works of art created between the 13th and 19th centuries from the Tibetan Plateau, China, and Mongolia, the shrine room highlights the religious context in which these sacred objects would be found in a private Tibetan shrine.

All of the objects - thangkas as well as sculptures of buddhas, bodhisattvas, tantric deities, female deities, wrathful deities and teachers - are arranged on traditional Tibetan furniture and according to the hierarchy they assume in Tibetan Buddhist practices. Ritual objects, such as butter lamps, offering bowls, vajras and bells, rosaries, conch trumpets, horns and reeds, and hand drums, are also on view.

An accompanying publication, A Shrine for Tibet: The Alice S. Kandell Collection, is available at the Shop @ RMA. Recently published by Tibet House US, the catalog features extensive full-color photography, a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and essays by Robert A.F. Thurman, the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University and co-founder of Tibet House, and Marylin M. Rhie, the Jessie Wells Post Professor of Art and professor of East Asian Studies at Smith College. 299 pages; $60.

 

Curated by Elena Pakhoutova and Martin Brauen

To learn even more about The Tibetan Shrine Room, read the press release.

 

Explore Lineage Paintings

Audio Tour Download the exhibition audio tour from iTunes U

Looking Guide Click here to download the Looking Guide created for the exhibition. The booklet is designed to help visitors recognize common symbols and important figures that can be seen in the art throughout the museum.

Educational Interactives Explore a Tibetan scroll painting, known as a thangka and how the lineage of Buddhist teachers plays an important role in understanding the Buddhist religion and its practice. Explore Lineage Paintings Additional Interactives Explore Manadalas Explore Narrative Paintings

University Faculty Resource Guide A guide to resources surrounding the exhibition Gateway to Himalayan Art, designed with university faculty and students in mind. Download Resource Guide Now

Installation Photographs Click here to view the installation of Gateway to Himalayan Art

Behind the Scenes Blog Take a look at how the Rubin Museum staff worked to create the museum's new introductory exhibition. Click here to launch.